It is known to incorporate Global Positioning System (GPS) technology within wireless devices, such as cellular phones and handheld computers. This provides desirable additional information to a user of such device, as well as provides more accurate location information for governmental emergency response to the user of such a device, for example a response to “911” emergency calls.
However, it is readily apparent that with large-scale use of such devices, real-time tracking of any given individual device can become difficult and complex. For example, a large metropolitan area could potentially contain tens of thousands of active devices during busy periods; and the future may bring may even greater numbers of devices “online”. Yet, the location of any specific device must be quickly determined in an emergency. A similar scheme may be required to track a specific device or a very large number of devices for non emergency applications, such as within commercial shipping and delivery services.
What is needed is an improved method and system for advanced tracking systems for large numbers of mobile devices by combining network processor technology with GPS technology.